Process for producing smokeless powder



Patented Dee, id, 1922.

htdhtll d Elmer; L. DAVIS, @F SQMERVIL LE, MASSACHUSETTS.

ZPEQCESF'S FOR PRODUCTHG SMOKELESS POWDFLE.

life Drawing.

Application. filed April 16, 1921. Serial Ito. 462,028.

(FELED "UNDER 361 @11 MARCH 3, 3883, 22 STAT. L, 625.)

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that T, TnNNnr L. Davis, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Somerville, county of Middlesex, and State of lvlassachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Processes for Producing Smokeless Powder, of which the following.

is a specification.

The invention described herein may be used by the Govermnent, orany or its of";- cers or employees in prosecution oi work for the Government, or by any other person in the United States, without payment to me of any royalty thereon. The subject of this invention is izing agents for nitrocellulose.

The main advantages of this invention reside in the fact that powders coated with the substances will be less hygroscopic than ordinary smokeless powder and will show Gelatinin a greater degree the phenomenon of of part or all of the usual alcohol-ether or acetone solvent, will reduce the tendency of the powder to take moisture. Their amount.

may be so regulated as to render the powder flashless.

For some time it has been the practice to incoporate with the nitrocellulpse' which is used in the manufacture of smokeless powder certain other nitrogenous substances, particularly substituted ureas and substituted urethanes which modify the nature of the'resulting colloid. Certain of these substances act also as stabilizers, combining with the products of the-spontaneous decomposition of the nitrocellulose and so lengthening the efiective life of the powder. These same substances are used also for coating smokeless powder grains. When applied to powder by methods whichv are well known, these substances amalgamate withthe' surface of the grain and modify its physical condition rendering the surface less pervious to moisture and slower burning than the surfaces of uncoatecl powder grains. Incorporated throughout the'mass of powder grain, these substances render the powder slower burning and cooler, and consequently reduce its erosive effect and, in certain cases, may even produce liashlessness of discharge.

T have discovered that certain nitrogen compounds of the type known as heterocyelic compounds are excellent solvents for nitrocellulose and eminently satisfactory for use as gelatinizing agents in the manufacture of smokeless powder and for use in coating grains of nitrocellulose powder. Noteworthy among such substances are the substituted pyrazolones and pyrazolidones. The formulas of the unsubstituted parent substances are given below:

CB:NH NH NH one -00 cnz co Pyrazolone Pyrazolidone My experiments indicate for instance, that diphenylpyrazolone is about three times as eficient a gelatinizer for nitrocellulose as other standard gelatinizing. agents with which I have compared these substances. l[

'find that phenyldimethylpyrazolone, which has been used extensively in medicine under the name of .antipyrine is also an excellent material for the purpose.

lVhat I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1; A process for producing smokeless powder, embodying gelatinizing nitrocellulose with a nitrogen compound of the heterocyclic type, forming the colloid thus obtained into grains and drying.

2. A' process for producing smokeless powder embodying gelatinizing nitrocelluf lose with a substituted pyrazolone derivative, forming the colloid thus obtained into grains and drying.

3. A process for producing smokeless powder, embodying gelatinizing nitrocellulose with a substituted pyrazolidone, forming the colloid thus obtained into grains and drying.

TENNEY L. DAVIS. 

